


A Proper Name

by WhiskyNotTea



Series: Whisky's Other Outlander Tales [8]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms, Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 14:18:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16265957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiskyNotTea/pseuds/WhiskyNotTea
Summary: Brian and Ellen Fraser decide the name of their second son.





	A Proper Name

The bairn had soft, red hair. Her hair - and a lot of it.

Mackenzie blood running through his veins.

Ellen ran a finger over his little face, gently tracing the smooth forehead, the small nose, the wide lips.

The slanted blue eyes were turned towards her, and he looked at her in the vague way newborns do. Ellen smiled, looking at the cerulean pools, exactly like the ones she’d fallen in love with, years ago, the night of the gathering at Castle Leoch.

The Fraser side claiming its part of his blood.

The bairn kept his eyes open for just a moment before he squeezed them shut again. His mouth opened, ready to cry in frustration, for he had lost purchase on her nipple - a devastating thing to happen. Ellen helped her son before he’d wake the whole house with his screams, and then watched him suck, peaceful once more, and content.

She couldn’t stop looking at him.

It was beautiful to see little Jenny climb on the bed to sit next to her, eager to hold the baby. It was heartwarming to have Willie sit - composed, as an older brother would be - on her other side, eyes glinting with excitement when he talked about all the boys’ stuff he’d get to teach his little brother. But it was when the Laird’s room door was closed, when she had kissed her older children goodnight, that she had those precious moments alone with him, to welcome the newest Fraser at home.

Brian walked into the room soon after the baby had fallen asleep. He looked tired, with dark circles under his blue eyes, but his smile was radiant when he looked at the two redheads in bed.

“You’re awake.” It wasn’t a question. He shed off his clothes, leaving them on the chair in front of the dresser, and got under the quilts.

“One of us, at least,” she said, tearing her eyes away from her boy to look at her man.

He smelled of horses and smoke, and his kiss tasted like happiness and love.

“Have you decided, mo nighean ruaidh?” he asked, settled next to her. His eyes focused on the baby in her arms, while his hand moved up her thigh.

“Brian Fraser!” Ellen hissed. “Take yer frozen hands off me!”

He felt goosebumps rising on her silken skin and pulled his hand away, albeit reluctantly.

“So that’s my welcome? Oh, the pain, to be rejected by my own wife!” He looked at her from the corner of his eye, resting the back of his hand against his forehead, as if he was part of an ancient tragedy.

Ellen’s body shook with suppressed laughter. “Give me yer hands,” she said, thinking how she felt sometimes that she had four children instead of three.

She kissed his hands with warm lips, and let him cup her face.

“Thank ye, mo nighean,” he said and kissed her reverently on the forehead.

“What for? Your hands are still as cold as a winter’s night!”

“Aye, but ye warmed my heart.” He gave her a genuine smile, and then asked again, “So, have ye decided on a name fer the bairn?”

“Only one? He’ll think we dinna love him, Brian, wi’ him having only one name while his brother and sister have three each!”

“Oh aye,” Brian chuckled. “He’ll have three names too. Who kens, he might need them all.”

“D’ye think so, Brian Robert David Fraser?” she teased.

“I dinna ken. I didna need all mine, if that’s yer question. And ye didna need yers, Ellen Caitriona Sileas MacKenzie Fraser,” he returned her teasing.

Ellen shrugged, and then looked at Brian, a faint line between her eyebrows. “I was thinking of ‘Murtagh’, but he’s nae a Murtagh, right?”

Brian laughed at that, and it would have been a boisterous laugh if his son hadn’t been sleeping just a breath away. “He reminds me of ye, ruaidh.”

It was Ellen’s turn to laugh - silently. “Well we canna name him Ellen now, can we?” She took a deep breath then, the echo of their laughter fluttering in her heart. “He minds me of my Da.”

“Red Jacob?” Brian asked incredulously. “The ruthless leader?”

Ellen cocked an eyebrow, giving him a disapproving look. “The fierce warrior,” she returned. “Do ye ken, Brian Fraser, that I would never have been free to marry ye, if it wasna for my Da? In contrast to my brothers, Da never tried to force me to wed a suitor I had rejected.”

“Oh?” Brian gave her a soft smile. She’d never told him before.

“I ken that a lot had been said about him, rumours and gossip and some truths, but he loved me and he was a good Da to me. As for the ruthless leader, leave it to me to make a fair leader out of our son. As I’m counting on you, to make him a fearless warrior.”

“And he’ll love his redheaded daughter something fierce, aye? Even if she elopes wi’ a stranger?” Brian’s kiss tasted of mirth when his lips found hers. “Is it ‘Jacob’, then?”

Ellen sighed, leaning her head on her husbands shoulder, looking at their bairn. “He’s not a ‘Jacob’. What about ‘James’?”

“I like ‘James’, mo chridhe,” he said, kissing her temple.

They stayed fixed in time, the Brian Dubh and Ellen Ruaidh, looking at the little bundle in her arms. Finally, Ellen spoke again, asking Brian for the child’s second name.

“‘Alexander’,” Brian said decisively. “Since ye’re making him a fair leader, he’ll need a proper name to call himself one. Alexander means the Defender of Men. ‘Tis strong.”

“Aye, I like it. And the third one…” Ellen trailed off and looked at Brian, a light frown on her face. “This bairn’s life isna predictable.  He’s not like Willie, who knows that his destiny lies in Lallybroch. This one might become a man of words, or a warrior, a farmer… I want to give him a name that will be a weapon to him, to help him, no matter what happens.”

“What is on yer mind, a nighean?”

“‘Malcolm’. It means the same as Colum and it’s what my brother wanted us to call him when he was just a lad - it’s a king’s name, ye ken.” She looked at Brian, wanting him to understand. “Colum gave us this land, to build our life here. He maybe doesna talk to me now, but he’ll appreciate the gesture, I ken it. And I want him to be there for our lad, if he’ll ever need my family.”

“Look at the sly MacKenzie I married,” Brian said, shaking his head. He kissed his wife’s high cheekbones, then looked at his son, wondering if the same bonny frame was hidden under the rosy cheeks. “James. Alexander. Malcolm. Mackenzie. Fraser,” Brian announced and inhaled deeply, as if he wanted to take in the scent of the words.

“Jamie,” Ellen whispered with a smile and kissed the bairn, before setting him back in his basket.

A wisp of air entered the room from the slightly opened window, the scent of Ellen’s roses mingling with that of the peat fire, enveloping them in a hopeful warmth. Ellen scooted closer to her husband, feeling the weight of his arm across her waist as he lay behind her, and closed her eyes to sleep before wee Jamie would be hungry again.


End file.
